In light of the recent unprecedented floods in the Midwestern
United States, I decided to review the account of Noah’s flood in Genesis 7 and
8. This study resulted in bringing to my attention the very detailed recording
of the passage of time as the events of the Flood took place. These events are
given to us as inspired by Christ, the Word, in a chronology of days and months
through which God reveals a system for measuring time that parallels the
present calculations of the Hebrew Calendar.

A number of assumptions have been made about how time was
measured when the events in the book of Genesis took place, the most prominent
being that a year was comprised of twelve 30-day months. According to this
view, the forty-two months and the 1260 days that is prophesied in Revelation
11:2-3 are identical. It should be noted, however, that the 42 months of the
prophecy in Revelation 11 represent the period of time of the treading down of
the HolyCity
while the 1260 days represent the period of time that the two witnesses
prophesy. Neither the assumption that there were originally only 30-day months
nor the premise that the moon’s orbit originally matched the yearly cycle of
the sun is verifiable by this scripture. Many believe that both of these
conditions existed at the creation of the world but that through the passage of
time and events the relationship of the sun and moon to the earth was altered,
giving us the average lunar month of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3&1/3
seconds. However, a study of the scriptural account of the Noachian Flood will
demonstrate that the moon’s orbit has never changed. The irregularity of its
orbit does not allow a calendar with the same number of days in each year.

The rather wobbly orbit of the moon periodically requires
the addition of one or two days to the year to keep the months aligned with the
phases of the moon, and the length of the moon’s orbit periodically requires
the addition of a thirteenth month to the year to align the calendar with the
solar seasons in order to keep the holy days of God at their appointed times. This
intercalary month is necessitated by the yearly cycle of the sun, which is
longer than the lunar cycle. All moon-based calendars, including those based on
moon sighting, require some type of intercalation in
order to prevent seasonal shifting.

In the Hebrew Calendar, the length of the year is regulated
by an established intercalary cycle and by four mathematically-based rules of
postponement. When neither intercalation nor postponement is needed, the year
is composed of six 30-day months and six 29-day months, which makes a year of
354 days. However, many years have a greater number of days due to the need for
intercalation or postponement to align the calendar with the actual positions
of the sun and the moon.The necessity
to adjust the calendar to the orbits of the sun and moon results in six
different lengths of years: defective common years with 353 days, regular
common years with 354 days, excessive common years with 355 days, defective
leap years with 383 days, regular leap years with 384 days, and excessive leap
years with 385 days. Knowing the number of days in a specific year enables us
to determine whether or not intercalation or postponement was needed that year.
Some years may require both processes in order to keep the calendar in time with
the movements of the sun and moon. The excessive leap year of 385 days occurs
only when both intercalation and the rules of postponement are applied.

This fact has great bearing on the chronology of days and
months in the scriptural account of the Noachian Flood. If the chronological
record reveals that the year of the Flood was 385 days in length, it is
unequivocally established as an excessive leap year and demonstrates that the
calculations of the Hebrew Calendar were in effect many centuries before Moses
received them from God. Let us examine the scriptural account of the
Flood.

Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in
the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were
opened.”This verse gives us the
starting day of the Deluge: the seventeenth day of Iyar, the second month. The
fact that the Noachian Flood began in the second month of the year tells us
that it was the season of spring.

Some may question this statement in the belief that the
seventh month, Tishri, should start the year. They may even claim that Adam and
Eve had to have been created in the fall of the year in order for them to have
food to eat. But the garden was tropical, or semi-tropical, producing food
throughout the year. Moreover, the calendar that God delivered to Moses clearly
began in the spring of the year.

Exodus 12:2: “This
month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year
to you.”God gave Moses specific
instructions for determining the beginning point of the year.This is the first of many scriptures
designating the time that God ordained to start the year.

It should be noted that at this time Moses was not in Jerusalem
but in the land of Goshen.
According to some, Jerusalem is the
only geographical area from which to sight the new moon of the first month. In
addition, when God gave His instructions to Moses, the first month had already
begun. As the new moon had already arrived, it was too late for Moses to
determine the beginning of the year by observation. Instead, Moses received
instructions from God for determining the months of the year by calculation.

According to the calculations of the Hebrew Calendar, the first
month of the year is composed of 30 days. The account of the Flood states that
the forty days of rain started on the seventeenth day of the second month,
revealing the passage of 46 days from the first day of the year to the
beginning of the Flood. Genesis 7:11: “In
the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day
of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened.”

The breaking up of the fountains of the deep depicts massive
earthquakes releasing immeasurable quantities of water, producing incredible
tsunamis and storms of violence that modern man has never witnessed. No
man-made shelter could have withstood the enormity of the violence that passed
over the face of the earth. Verse 12: “And
the rain was on theearth forty days
and forty nights.”

This verse records that the initial length of the outpouring
of water was forty days, and Genesis 7:17 confirms it: “Now the flood was on
the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.”

Note that it was the accumulation of water during the forty
days that resulted in lifting the Ark
high above the earth. The description in Verses 17 through 23 is relating what
took place as a result of the forty days of rain and the breaking up of the
fountains of the deep.At the end of
forty days, the Ark was fifteen
cubits above the highest mountain (v. 20).

Genesis 7:24: “And the
waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.” The basic
meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated “prevailed” is to be “strong,
mighty” (Brown, Driver and Briggs, p. 149). The waters did not prevail over the
earth on the first or second day of the Flood. They prevailed at the end of the
forty days when the Flood reached its maximum depth, making the one hundred and
fifty days of prevailing consecutive to the forty days of rain. Both periods of
time need to be included in order to determine the total length of time of the
events of the Flood.

As recorded in the scriptural account, God did not allow the
level of the Flood waters to drop until they had prevailed for one hundred and
fifty days. He prevented this by sending additional rain and by bringing up
waters from the fountains of the deep. God caused the waters to continue for
one hundred and fifty days to maintain the level at fifteen cubits above the
highest mountains. This ensured the death of all air-breathing life on land.

Genesis 8:1-3:“Then God remembered Noah, and every living
thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind
to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and
the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was
restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of
the one hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.”

These verses describe the process by which God began to dry
up the Flood waters. This process continued for an extended period of time as
demonstrated by the word translated “decreased” or “abated” 2637 at
the end of Verse 3. This word is used in the account to describe the removal of
the waters from the flooded earth.Gesenius gives the following definition of this word: “(1) To be devoid of anything, to lack, to be without, followed
by an accusative.” As we continue to examine the scriptural account, we will
learn the exact length of time that it took for the waters of the Flood to
recede and the ground to become dry.

Genesis 8:4: “Then the
ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the
mountains of Ararat.” This verse gives the impression that the Ark
settled down on the mountains of Ararat because the waters had started to
decrease. However, for the Ark to
rest on the ground would have required the depth of the water to have fallen
considerably. The highest mountains were covered to a depth of fifteen
cubits—not a great depth until you consider that fifteen cubits of water above Mt.Everest at 29,000 feet would make a
depth of more than two miles above Mt.Ararat at 17,000 feet.

In addition, consider that the date given for this
occurrence, the seventh month, the seventeenth day, was only 194 days into the
six hundredth year (Nisan 1 through Tishri 17).
However, the scriptural account records that 236 days of that year had passed
before God started to dry up the Flood waters (46 plus 40 plus 150 equals 236).
If you figure that the forty days of rain were part of the 150 days, the total
would still be 196 days before the waters began to decrease. It was therefore
impossible for the Ark to have
been lodged on the ground on the seventeenth day of the seventh month as the
waters had not yet begun to decrease.

What then is the meaning of the word “rested” in Genesis
8:4? The word “rested” 5117 is describing a stopping of movement or
activity. The same Hebrew word is used in Exodus 20:11: “God rested on the seventh day.”His activity or movement ended.

The use of this word in Genesis 8:4 tells us that the Ark
remained immobile at a specific location. It was no longer rolling and plunging
through churning, turbulent Flood waters. The winds that had driven it ceased
to blow, the waves subsided, and the waters surrounding the Ark
became calm and placid. The Ark
came to a stop as if God had anchored it above the tops of the mountains. God
maintained the location of the Ark
at Mt.Ararat
not because it was physically stuck but because God wanted it there.It did not settle upon the ground until after
the waters had fully abated from their two-mile depth above Mt.Ararat.

The scriptural account reveals that the decreasing of the
waters took place gradually over the remaining months of the year. To determine
the total passage of time in the account of the Flood, it is necessary to know
the exact date that the last of the waters dried up. This date is recorded in
Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth
and first year, in the first month, the first day
of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed
the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of theground was dry.”This verse tells us that the waters were
dried up on the first day of the six hundredth and first year, and Noah’s
removal of the covering confirmed this fact. This state of dryness was reached
exactly one hundred and fifty days from the time that the waters had ceased to
prevail.

It should be noted at this point that counting the initial
forty days of the Flood as part of the one hundred and fifty days of the waters
prevailing would make the six hundredth year only 345 days in length (46 days
to the beginning of the Flood plus 150 days of the waters prevailing plus 150
days of the waters decreasing equals 346 days, minus 1 day for the first day of
the 601st year equals 345 days). There is no yearly cycle, either
calculated or observed, that would fit a 345-day year. This fact confirms that
the 40 days of rain and the 150 days of the waters prevailing were two separate
periods of time, just as the 150 days of the waters abating were separate from
the 150 days of the waters prevailing. These three periods of time extended
from the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah’s life to the first
month of his six hundredth and first year. Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first
month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the
earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the
surface of theground was dry.”

This verse states that on the first day of the first month
all the Flood waters were gone and the earth was dry, but the scriptural
account extends beyond this point.Genesis 8:14: “And in the second
month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.” This verse may seem to contradict the preceding
verse, but the word used in Verse 13 to describe the dryness of the earth does
not have the same meaning as the word used in Verse 14. The Hebrew word that is
translated “dried” and “dry” 2717 in Verse 13 ischareb.However, the Hebrew word translated “dry” 3001
in Verse 14 is yabesh.
Gesenius notes that these two Hebrew
words represent different levels of dryness. The first denotes an absence of
water, and the second represents a condition more akin to that of a lack of
moisture, or withered. Verse 13 depicts a condition of no standing water
whereas Verse 14 is describing dry soil that is no longer saturated. This stage
of dryness was reached 56 days after the Flood waters dried up.

The account records that Noah remained in the Ark
until the earth reached this second stage of dryness. There was good reason for
waiting to leave the Ark until
the soil had dried. If Noah had released the animals before the ground was dry,
the elephants and other large animals might have gotten bogged down and
entrapped in mud.

After the withdrawal of the Flood waters and drying of the
ground, the earth was prepared to receive the survivors of the Flood. They had
entered the Ark on the
seventeenth day of the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.
Below is a computation of the number of days that passed in the year of the
Flood.

Gen. 7:11Flood
begins on 17th day of 2nd month

(30 days in the 1st month plus 16 days

in the 2nd) 46
days

.

Gen. 7:12Rain for
40 days and 40 nights40 days

Gen. 7:24Waters
prevail150 days

Gen. 8:3Waters abate150 days

Total:386 days

Gen. 8:13 Water
dried on first day of the next year-1 day

Total:385 days

The chronological facts that are recorded in the account in
the book of Genesis clearly establish a period of 385 days in the year of the
Noachian Flood. This year length is significant because it is the exact number
of days required for an excessive leap year in the Hebrew Calendar. This
remarkable account of the Flood, which God inspired to be recorded in his Word,
is indisputable evidence that the Hebrew Calendar bears His stamp of approval.
There can be no doubt that the calculations of the Hebrew Calendar have been
the basis of God’s true calendar from the beginning.